Insurance firms, governments, countries all looking for help with Ebola and other outbreaks

A group of virus hunters in San Francisco may be closer to changing the way insurers, companies and countries deal with the risk of another Ebola outbreak.

Their company, Metabiota Inc., uses a staff of epidemiologists and researchers in 20 countries to provide forecasts and data on outbreaks. Most of its clients are U.S. government agencies, but in the past three years the firm has pushed deeper into the private sector. On Wednesday Metabiota said it raised $30 million in a new funding round in part to expand its client base among insurance companies and governments.

“We don’t have to just throw up our hands when epidemics happen,” said Nathan Wolfe, a virologist who founded Metabiota in 2008. “Through a combination of monitoring and modeling, we can be proactive and hedge some of the risk.”

Reinsurance giant Munich Re already has structured deals to hedge itself against global pandemics using Metabiota’s data. Now it plans to use that data to offer countries, including African nations that were hard hit by Ebola, insurance contracts against future outbreaks, said Stephan Reulein, the company’s head of financial solutions in its life division. The World Bank says Ebola-related economic losses in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone in 2015 alone would be about $1.6 billion, or 12% of gross domestic product.

Reinsurers provide financial protection to a wide range of insurance companies, including health-care and life insurers, but they have to actively manage their exposure to risk from geographic locations and industries. Other financial institutions, including pension funds and hedge funds, sometimes agree to take on the risk from reinsurers in exchange for premiums.

Pilot Growth Equity joined forces with several other partners and led by our managing partner John DeLoche as he saw an immense opportunity for both the private and public sector to revolutionize germ warfare. The other parties involved were Capricorn Health & Special Opportunities, Data Collective, WP Global Partners.

Article originally posted http://www.wsj.com/articles/virus-hunter-metabiota-finds-niche-in-epidemic-research-1432155621